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1 A BOOK OF DISCOVERY THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD'S EXPLORATION, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE FINDING OF THE SOUTH POLE By M. B. SYNGE, F.R.Hist.S. AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF THE WORLD" "A SHORT HISTORY OF SOCIAL LIFE IN ENGLAND" ETC. FULLY ILLUSTRATED FROM AUTHENTIC SOURCES AND WITH MAPS [Illustration: THE GOLDEN HIND (From the Chart of "Drake's Voyages")] LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK, LTD. 35 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C., & EDINBURGH INTRODUCTION "Hope went before them, and the world was wide." Such was the spirit in which the exploration of the world was accomplished. It was the inspiration that carried men of old far beyond the sunrise into those magic and silent seas whereon no boat had ever sailed. It is the incentive of those to-day with the wander-thirst in their souls, who travel and suffer in the travelling, though there are fewer prizes left to win. But "The reward is in the doing, And the rapture of pursuing Is the prize." 2 "To travel hopefully," says Stevenson, "is a better thing than to arrive." This would explain the fact that this Book of Discovery has become a record of splendid endurance, of hardships bravely borne, of silent toil, of courage and resolution unequalled in the annals of mankind, of self-sacrifice unrivalled and faithful lives laid ungrudgingly down. Of the many who went forth, the few only attained. It is of these few that this book tells. "All these," says the poet in Ecclesiastes--"all these were honoured in their generation, and were the glory of their times ... their name liveth for evermore." But while we read of those master-spirits who succeeded, let us never forget those who failed to achieve. "Anybody might have found it, but the Whisper came to Me." Enthusiasm too was the secret of their success. Among the best of crews there was always some one who would have turned back, but the world would never have been explored had it not been for those finer spirits who resolutely went on--even to the death. This is what carried Alexander the Great to the "earth's utmost verge," that drew Columbus across the trackless Atlantic, that nerved Vasco da Gama to double the Stormy Cape, that induced Magellan to face the dreaded straits now called by his name, that made it possible for men to face without flinching the ice-bound regions of the far North. "There is no land uninhabitable, nor sea unnavigable," asserted the men of the sixteenth century, when England set herself to take possession of her heritage in the North. Such an heroic temper could overcome all things. But the cost was great, the sufferings intense. "Having eaten our shoes and saddles boiled with a few wild herbs, we set out to reach the kingdom of gold," says Orellana in 1540. "We ate biscuit, but in truth it was biscuit no longer, but a powder full of worms,--so great was the want of food, that we were forced to eat the hides with which the mainyard was covered; but we had also to make use of sawdust for food, and rats became a great delicacy," related Magellan, as he led his little ship across the unknown Pacific. Again, there is Franklin returning from the Arctic coast, and stilling the pangs of hunger with "pieces of singed hide mixed with lichen," varied with "the horns and bones of a dead deer fried with some old shoes." The dangers of the way were manifold. For the early explorers had no land map or ocean chart to guide them, there were no lighthouses to warn the strange mariner of dangerous coast and angry surf, no books of travel to relate the weird doings of fierce and inhospitable savages, no tinned foods to prevent the terrible scourge of sailors, scurvy. In their little wooden sailing ships the men of old faced every conceivable danger, and surmounted obstacles unknown to modern civilisation. "Now strike your Sails ye jolly Mariners, For we be come into a quiet Rode." For the most part we are struck with the light-heartedness of the olden sailor, the shout of gladness with which men went forth on these hazardous undertakings, knowing not how they would arrive, or what might befall them by the way, went forth in the smallest of wooden ships, with the most incompetent of crews, to face the dangers of unknown seas and unsuspected lands, to chance the angry storm and the hidden rock, to discover inhospitable shores and savage foes. Founded on bitter experience is the old saying-- 3 "A Passage Perilous makyth a Port Pleasant." For the early navigators knew little of the art of navigation. Pytheas, who discovered the British Isles, was "a great mathematician." Diego Cam, who sailed to the mouth of the Congo, was "a knight of the King's household." Sir Hugh Willoughby, "a most valiant gentleman." Richard Chancellor, "a man of great estimation for many good parts of wit in him." Anthony Jenkinson, a "resolute and intelligent gentleman." Sir Walter Raleigh, an Elizabethan courtier, and so forth. It has been obviously impossible to include all the famous names that belong to the history of exploration. Most of these explorers have been chosen for some definite new discovery, some addition to the world's geographical knowledge, or some great feat of endurance which may serve to brace us to fresh effort as a nation famous for our seamen. English navigators have been afforded the lion's share in the book, partly because they took the lion's share in exploring, partly because translations of foreign travel are difficult to transcribe. Most of these stories have been taken from original sources, and most of the explorers have been allowed to tell part of their own story in their own words. Perhaps the most graphic of all explorations is that written by a native of West Australia, who accompanied an exploring party searching for an English lad named Smith, who had been starved to death. "Away, away, away, away; we reach the water of Djunjup; we shoot game. Away, away, away through a forest away, through a forest away; we see no water. Through a forest away, along our tracks away; hills ascending, then pleasantly away, away, through a forest away. We see a water--along the river away--a short distance we go, then away, away, away through a forest away. Then along another river away, across the river away. Still we go onwards, along the sea away, through the bush away, then along the sea away. We sleep near the sea. I see Mr. Smith's footsteps ascending a sandhill; onwards I go regarding his footsteps. I see Mr. Smith dead. Two sleeps had he been dead; greatly did I weep, and much I grieved. In his blanket folding him, we scraped away the earth. The sun had inclined to the westward as we laid him in the ground." The book is illustrated with reproductions from old maps--old primitive maps, with a real Adam and Eve standing in the Garden of Eden, with Pillars of Hercules guarding the Straits of Gibraltar, with Paradise in the east, a realistic Jerusalem in the centre, the island of Thule in the north, and St. Brandon's Isles of the Blest in the west. Beautifully coloured were the maps of the Middle Ages, "joyous charts all glorious with gold and vermilion, compasses and crests and flying banners, with mountains of red and gold." The seas are full of ships--"brave beflagged vessels with swelling sails." The land is ablaze with kings and potentates on golden thrones under canopies of angels. While over all presides the Madonna in her golden chair. The Hereford Mappa Mundi, drawn in the thirteenth century on a fine sheet of vellum, circular in form, is among the most interesting of the mediaeval maps. It must once have been gorgeous, with its gold letters and scarlet towns, its green seas and its blue rivers. The Red Sea is still red, but the Mediterranean is chocolate brown, and all the green has disappeared. The mounted figure in the lower right-hand corner is probably the author, Richard de Haldingham. The map is surmounted by a representation of the Last Judgment, below which is Paradise as a circular island, with the four rivers and the figures of Adam and Eve. In the centre is Jerusalem. The world is divided into three--Asia, "Affrica," and Europe. Around this earth-island flows the ocean. America is, of course, absent; the East is placed at Paradise and the West at the Pillars of Hercules. North and South are left to the imagination. And what of the famous map of Juan de la Cosa, once pilot to Columbus, drawn in the fifteenth century, with St. Christopher carrying the infant Christ across the water, supposed to be a portrait of Christopher Columbus carrying the gospel to America? It is the first map in which a dim outline appears of the New World. 4 The early maps of "Apphrica" are filled with camels and unicorns, lions and tigers, veiled figures and the turrets and spires of strange buildings-"Geographers in Afric maps With savage pictures fill their gaps." "Surely," says a modern writer,--"surely the old cartographer was less concerned to fill his gaps than to express the poetry of geography." And to-day, there are still gaps in the most modern maps of Africa, where one-eleventh of the whole area remains unexplored. Further, in Asia the problem of the Brahmaputra Falls is yet unsolved; there are shores untrodden and rivers unsurveyed. "God hath given us some things, and not all things, that our successors also might have somewhat to do," wrote Barents in the sixteenth century. There may not be much left, but with the words of Kipling's Explorer we may fitly conclude-"Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look behind the Ranges-- Something lost behind the Ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!" Thanks are due to Mr. S. G. Stubbs for valuable assistance in the selection and preparation of the illustrations, which, with few exceptions, have been executed under his directions. CONTENTS I. A LITTLE OLD WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II. EARLY MARINERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 III. IS THE WORLD FLAT? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 IV. HERODOTUS--THE TRAVELLER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 V. ALEXANDER THE GREAT EXPLORES INDIA . . . . . . . . . . . 35 VI. PYTHEAS FINDS THE BRITISH ISLES . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 VII. JULIUS CAESAR AS EXPLORER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 VIII. STRABO'S GEOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 IX. THE ROMAN EMPIRE AND PLINY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 X. PTOLEMY'S MAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 XI. PILGRIM TRAVELLERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 XII. IRISH EXPLORERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 XIII. AFTER MOHAMMED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 XIV. THE VIKINGS SAIL THE NORTHERN SEAS . . . . . . . . . . . 93 5 XV. ARAB WAYFARERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 XVI. TRAVELLERS TO THE EAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107 XVII. MARCO POLO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 XVIII. THE END OF MEDIAEVAL EXPLORATION . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 XIX. MEDIAEVAL MAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 XX. PRINCE HENRY OF PORTUGAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 XXI. BARTHOLOMEW DIAZ REACHES THE STORMY CAPE . . . . . . . . 150 XXII. CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 XXIII. A GREAT NEW WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 XXIV. VASCO DA GAMA REACHES INDIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 XXV. DISCOVERY OF THE SPICE ISLANDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 XXVI. BALBOA SEES THE PACIFIC OCEAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 XXVII. MAGELLAN SAILS ROUND THE WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 XXVIII. CORTES EXPLORES AND CONQUERS MEXICO . . . . . . . . . . 205 XXIX. EXPLORERS IN SOUTH AMERICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 XXX. CABOT SAILS TO NEWFOUNDLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 XXXI. JACQUES CARTIER EXPLORES CANADA . . . . . . . . . . . . 228 XXXII. SEARCH FOR A NORTH-EAST PASSAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . 235 XXXIII. MARTIN FROBISHER SEARCHES FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE . . . 245 XXXIV. DRAKE'S FAMOUS VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD . . . . . . . . . 249 XXXV. DAVIS STRAIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259 XXXVI. BARENTS SAILS TO SPITZBERGEN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 XXXVII. HUDSON FINDS HIS BAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273 XXXVIII. BAFFIN FINDS HIS BAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 XXXIX. SIR WALTER RALEIGH SEARCHES FOR EL DORADO . . . . . . . 285 XL. CHAMPLAIN DISCOVERS LAKE ONTARIO . . . . . . . . . . . . 290 6 XLI. EARLY DISCOVERERS OF AUSTRALIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296 XLII. TASMAN FINDS TASMANIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302 XLIII. DAMPIER DISCOVERS HIS STRAIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306 XLIV. BEHRING FINDS HIS STRAIT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312 XLV. COOK DISCOVERS NEW ZEALAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319 XLVI. COOK'S THIRD VOYAGE AND DEATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330 XLVII. BRUCE'S TRAVELS IN ABYSSINIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 XLVIII. MUNGO PARK AND THE NIGER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348 XLIX. VANCOUVER DISCOVERS HIS ISLAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357 L. MACKENZIE AND HIS RIVER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362 LI. PARRY DISCOVERS LANCASTER SOUND . . . . . . . . . . . . 365 LII. THE FROZEN NORTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 LIII. FRANKLIN'S LAND JOURNEY TO THE NORTH . . . . . . . . . . 382 LIV. PARRY'S POLAR VOYAGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388 LV. THE SEARCH FOR TIMBUKTU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391 LVI. RICHARD AND JOHN LANDER DISCOVER THE MOUTH OF THE NIGER 399 LVII. ROSS DISCOVERS THE NORTH MAGNETIC POLE . . . . . . . . . 403 LVIII. FLINDERS NAMES AUSTRALIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410 LIX. STURT'S DISCOVERIES IN AUSTRALIA . . . . . . . . . . . . 419 LX. ROSS MAKES DISCOVERIES IN THE ANTARCTIC SEAS . . . . . . 428 LXI. FRANKLIN DISCOVERS THE NORTH-WEST PASSAGE . . . . . . . 432 LXII. DAVID LIVINGSTONE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 440 LXIII. BURTON AND SPEKE IN CENTRAL AFRICA . . . . . . . . . . . 450 LXIV. LIVINGSTONE TRACES LAKE SHIRWA AND NYASSA . . . . . . . 456 LXV. EXPEDITION TO VICTORIA NYANZA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460 LXVI. BAKER FINDS ALBERT NYANZA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467 7 LXVII. LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 474 LXVIII. THROUGH THE DARK CONTINENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 486 LXIX. NORDENSKIOLD ACCOMPLISHES THE NORTH-EAST PASSAGE . . . . 501 LXX. THE EXPLORATION OF TIBET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511 LXXI. NANSEN REACHES FARTHEST NORTH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521 LXXII. PEARY REACHES THE NORTH POLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 530 LXXIII. THE QUEST FOR THE SOUTH POLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536 DATES OF CHIEF EVENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545 INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549 A BOOK OF DISCOVERY CHAPTER I 8 CHAPTER I A LITTLE OLD WORLD No story is complete unless it begins at the very beginning. But where is the beginning? Where is the dawn of geography--the knowledge of our earth? What was it like before the first explorers made their way into distant lands? Every day that passes we are gaining fresh knowledge of the dim and silent past. Every day men are patiently digging in the old heaps that were once the sites of busy cities, and, as a result of their unwearying toil, they are revealing to us the life-stories of those who dwelt therein; they are disclosing secrets writ on weather-worn stones and tablets, bricks and cylinders, never before even guessed at. Thus we read the wondrous story of ancient days, and breathlessly wonder what marvellous discovery will thrill us next. For the earliest account of the old world--a world made up apparently of a little land and a little water--we turn to an old papyrus, the oldest in existence, which tells us in familiar words, unsurpassed for their exquisite poetry and wondrous simplicity, of that great dateless time so full of mystery and awe. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.... And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God ... divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament.... And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.... And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas." Thus beautifully did the children of men express their earliest idea of the world's distribution of land and water. And where, on our modern maps, was this little earth, and what was it like? Did trees and flowers cover the land? Did rivers flow into the sea? Listen again to the old tradition that still rings down the ages-"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden ... and a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads. The name of the first is Pison ... and the name of the second river is Gihon; the name of the third river is Hiddekel (Tigris). And the fourth river is Euphrates." [Illustration: THE GARDEN OF EDEN WITH ITS FOUR RIVERS. From the Hereford Map of the World.] Now look at a modern map of Asia. Between Arabia and Persia there is a long valley watered by the Tigris and Euphrates, rivers which rise in Armenia and flow into the Persian Gulf. This region was the traditional "cradle of the human race." Around and beyond was a great world, a world with great surging seas, with lands of trees and flowers, a world with continents and lakes and bays and capes, with islands and mountains and rivers. There were vast deserts of sand rolling away to right and to left; there were mountains up which no man had climbed; there were stormy seas over which no ship had ever sailed. But these men of old had never explored far. They believed that their world was just a very little world with no other occupants than themselves. They believed it to be flat, with mountains at either end on which rested a solid metal dome known as the "firmament." In this shining circle were windows, in and out of which the sun would creep by day and the moon and stars by night. And the whole of this world was, they thought, balanced on the waters. There was water above, the CHAPTER I 9 "waters that be above the firmament," and water below, and water all round. [Illustration: BABYLONIAN MAP OF THE WORLD ON CLAY. Showing the ocean surrounding the world and the position of Babylon on the Euphrates. In the British Museum.] Long ages pass away. Let us look again at the green valley of the Euphrates and Tigris. It has been called the "nursery of nations"--names have been given to various regions round about, and cities have arisen on the banks of the rivers. Babylonia, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Assyria--all these long names belonged to this region, and around each centres some of the most interesting history and legend in the world. Rafts on the river and caravans on the land carried merchandise far and wide--men made their way to the "Sea of the Rising Sun," as they called the Persian Gulf, and to the "Sea of the Setting Sun," as they called the Mediterranean. They settled on the shores of the Caspian Sea, on the shores of the Black Sea, on the shores of the Red Sea. They carried on magnificent trade--cedar, pine, and cypress were brought from Lebanon to Chaldea, limestone and marble from Syria, copper and lead from the shores of the Black Sea. And these dwellers about Babylonia built up a wonderful civilisation. They had temples and brick-built houses, libraries of tablets revealing knowledge of astronomy and astrology; they had a literature of their own. Suddenly from out the city of Ur (Kerbela), near the ancient mouth of the Euphrates, appears a traveller. There had doubtless been many before, but records are scanty and hard to piece together, and a detailed account of a traveller with a name is very interesting. "Abram went ... forth to go into the land of Canaan.... And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South. And there was a famine in the land. And Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there." He would have travelled by the chief caravan routes of Syria into Egypt. Here about the fertile mouth of the Nile he would have found an ancient civilisation as wonderful as that to which he was accustomed in Babylonia. It was a grain-growing country, and when there was famine in other lands, there was always "corn in Egypt"--thanks to the mighty life-giving Nile. But we must not linger over the old civilisation, over the wonderful Empire governed by the Pharaohs or kings, first from Memphis (Cairo) and then from the hundred-gated Thebes; must not linger over these old pyramid builders, the temple, sphinxes, and statues of ancient Egypt. Before even Abram came into their country we find the Egyptians famous for their shipping and navigation. Old pictures and tombs recently discovered tell us this. [Illustration: THE OLDEST KNOWN SHIPS: BETWEEN 6000 AND 5000 B.C. From a pre-Egyptian vase-painting.] On the coast of the Red Sea they built their long, narrow ships, which were rowed by some twenty paddlers on either side, and steered by three men standing in the stern. With one mast and a large sail they flew before the wind. They had to go far afield for their wood; we find an Egyptian being sent "to cut down four forests in the South in order to build three large vessels ... out of acacia wood." Petrie tells us of an Egyptian sailor who was sent to Punt or Somaliland "to fetch for Pharaoh sweet-smelling spices." He was shipwrecked on the way, and this is the account of his adventures-"'I was going,' he relates, 'to the mines of Pharaoh and I went down on the sea on a ship with a hundred and fifty sailors of the best of Egypt, whose hearts were stronger than lions. They had said that the wind would be contrary, or that there would be none. But as we approached the land the wind rose and threw up high waves. As for me, I seized a piece of wood; but those who were in the vessel perished, without one remaining. A wave threw me on an island; after that I had been three days alone without a companion beside my own heart, I laid me in a thicket, and the shadow covered me. I found figs and grapes, all manner of good herbs, berries CHAPTER I 10 and grain, melons of all kinds, fishes and birds. I lighted a fire and I made a burnt-offering unto the gods. Suddenly I heard a noise as of thunder, which I thought to be that of a wave of the sea. The trees shook and the earth was moved. I uncovered my eyes and I saw that a serpent drew near; his body was as if overlaid with gold, and his colour as that of true lazuli.' "'What has brought thee here, little one, to this isle, which is in the sea and of which the shores are in the midst of the waves?' asked the serpent. "The sailor told his story kneeling on his knees, with his face bowed to the ground. "'Fear not, little one, and make not thy face sad,' continued the serpent, 'for it is God who has brought thee to this isle of the blest, where nothing is lacking and which is filled with all good things. Thou shalt be four months in this isle. Then a ship shall come from thy land with sailors, and thou shalt go to thy country. As for me, I am a prince of the land of Punt. I am here with my brethren and children around me; we are seventy-five serpents, children and kindred.' "Then the grateful sailor promised to bring all the treasures of Egypt back to Punt, and 'I shall tell of thy presence unto Pharaoh; I shall make him to know of thy greatness,' said the Egyptian stranger. "But the strange prince of Punt only smiled. "'Thou shalt never more see this isle,' he said; 'it shall be changed into waves.'" Everything came to pass as the serpent said. The ship came, gifts were lavished on the sailor from Egypt, perfumes of cassia, of sweet woods, of cypress, incense, ivory tusks, baboons, and apes, and thus laden he sailed home to his own people. [Illustration: EGYPTIAN SHIP OF THE EXPEDITION TO PUNT, ABOUT 1600 B.C. From a rock-carving at Der el Bahari.] Long centuries after this we get another glimpse at the land of Punt. This time it is in the reign of Queen Hatshepsu, who sent a great trading expedition into this famous country. Five ships started from Thebes, sailing down the river Nile and probably reaching the Red Sea by means of a canal. Navigation in the Red Sea was difficult; the coast was steep and inhospitable; no rivers ran into it. Only a few fishing villages lay along the coasts used by Egyptian merchants as markets for mother-of-pearl, emeralds, gold, and sweet-smelling perfumes. Thence the ships continued their way, the whole voyage taking about two months. Arrived at Punt, the Egyptian commander pitched his tents upon the shore, to the great astonishment of the inhabitants. "Why have ye come hither unto this land, which the people of Egypt know not?" asked the Chief of Punt. "Have ye come through the sky? Did ye sail upon the waters or upon the sea?" Presents from the Queen of Egypt were at once laid before the Chief of Punt, and soon the seashore was alive with people. The ships were drawn up, gang-planks were very heavily laden with "marvels of the country of Punt." There were heaps of myrrh, resin, of fresh myrrh trees, ebony and pure ivory, cinnamon wood, incense, baboons, monkeys, dogs, natives, and children. "Never was the like brought to any king of Egypt since the world stands." And the ships voyaged safely back to Thebes with all their booty and with pleasant recollections of the people of Somaliland. [Illustration: THE ARK ON ARARAT AND THE CITIES OF NINEVEH AND BABYLON. From Leonardo Dati's map of 1422.] In spite of these little expeditions the Egyptian world seemed still very small. The Egyptians thought of the